Warehouse owner proposes retail project

Justin Pottle

Updated 9:32 pm, Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The owner of a Bruce Park Avenue warehouse is looking to capitalize on its prime downtown location, and proposed a 20,011-square-foot retail building to the Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday evening.

However, early concerns over traffic impact, parking and historic preservation could hamper the proposal's progress. Project leaders are seeking a preliminary site plan and special permit. The item remained open at the meeting as of press time

The current building is used by Morgan Manhattan Moving Company as a warehouse and depot for operations north of New York City. The business' owner, Jeff Morgan, also owns the Gilliam Properties, the LLC which holds the warehouse's 16 Bruce Park Avenue location.

At the foot of Greenwich Avenue near the intersection with Steamboat Road, the space, Morgan said, can be put to better use than stowing moving vans.

The decision to move the moving company's operations and develop the property for more commercial purposes had been in the works for nearly a decade, and its roots extended well beyond Morgan's own lifetime. One of his family's company's original warehouses was on West 47th Street in what is now midtown Manhattan. When it was first built, sheep grazed on the other side of the street.

"That warehouse became, ultimately, not the highest and best use for the property," said Morgan. "Eventually, my great-grandfather sold it in the '20s to a developer who was building a hotel. That hotel is still there today.

"Our business is a 163 years old, this has happened to us many times over the years."

Like the Manhattan warehouse, the proposed Bruce Park Avenue project is a product of a changing neighborhood and the new economic opportunities that came with it.

"For quite some time, I've been getting phone calls saying that building shouldn't be a warehouse anymore," said Morgan. "Over the last 10 years some have (suggested the property's use as) an office, some have even said car dealership. There have been any number of different suggestions, including, of course, retail."

The proposed building would house up to four retailers, said Morgan, with three taking up the second floor, where the majority of the floor space is located. A smaller retail space of about 1,000 square feet would be on the first floor.

The proposal seeks to build a multi-layer underground parking facility below the shopping plaza capable of housing 104 cars. Instead of tunneling under the existing buildings, project planners seek variances allowing for a higher building so as to fit parking underneath.

The building, as presented in the plan, would be one of the largest along the Greenwich Avenue corridor, which includes the 27,000-square-foot Richards department store, which the project was partly modeled after.

But not everyone is happy about it.

Nearby landlord Carl Carlson, an RTM member from District 1, opposed the project on the grounds it would disrupt historic preservation in the area and remove parking options for tenants.

"There is no plus for residential living," said Carlson, who owns an adjacent building. "It's just a store. I think people should be put ahead of some big-box store."

Planning and Zoning officials raised the question of residential uses of the space, but Morgan and his attorney, John Tesei, said that residential uses could not provide enough of a financial incentive to justify the proposal.